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Barbarians usually do not have access to good shaving blades or mirrors. So it is not rare to see a barbarian with a huge BadassBeard that puts all other beards to shame. Not only do they dwarf the beards of civilized men, but they also have really awesome [[DreadlockWarrior dreadlocks]] and BraidsOfBarbarism. He may even have body parts from his slain enemies stuck in there. Anyone with a beard like that is immediately flagged as a [[TheBerserker Berserker]], a BloodKnight or both.

The more barbaric the man is, the more of these traits (largeness, dreadlockedness, braidedness, number of enemy parts) his beard has. As such, the Beard of Barbarism is used to contrast barbarians with civilized soldiers, who either are clean shaven or have tamed facial hair. These beards can also help determine seniority among the barbarians, as the older men have longer beards.

Usually paired with WildHair. [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwarf beards]] also fit this trope most of the time, though with less barbaric conotations as Dwarves are usually depicted as at least as civilized as the humans around them.

Subtrope of BadassBeard and sometimes BeardOfEvil. Combine with SeadogBeard for pirates; compare and contrast WizardBeard.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Advertising]]* The Capital One Vikings, one has a ten year old son who has a bigger beard than his old man.[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Wulf in ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' is another Viking character with an impressive beard.* VandalSavage usually has a beard. You can sort of tell how "civilised" he is in a given time by how trimmed it is. It's a full-on Beard Of Barbarism in ''ComicBook/DemonKnights''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]

* While Franchise/{{Conan The Barbarian}} did not sport a beard, the Aesir, Vanir and other barbarians that he occasionally fought did have full beards.* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Cohen the Barbarian has a beard so long he's been said to [[GodivaHair not actually need his loincloth]] to remain decent. Being mostly a parody of BarbarianHero types, it's to be expected.* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Hagrid sports a comb-breaking, beetle-infested beard.* Inverted and played straight in Creator/CormacMcCarthy's ''Literature/TheRoad.'' The book's most central character sports an unkempt beard (rarely mentioned except when he gets the opportunity to shave it off) and is also the ''least'' barbaric character in the novel. Played straight by a small band of cannibals seen briefly, in which the only adjective that describes the men is "bearded."* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Northmen are often described as big, bearded men in furs. Living in the [[GrimUpNorth grim north]], they're more barbarian-like than the Southerners.* Colonel Colm Corbec of Literature/GauntsGhosts sports a classic example; while he's not a barbarian ''per se'', the Ghosts are often portrayed as much more barbaric than the other Guardsmen they fight alongside, like the [[BlueBlood Volpone Bluebloods]].[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Pretty much everyone has a seriously badass Beard of Barbarism on ''Series/{{Vikings}}''. Hell, even background extras get beards of such epicness that usually belong to main or supporting characters on other shows. * D'Argo in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has a Beard Of Barbarism made up of a mixture of hair and tentacles.* The hill tribes in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' have rather large beards.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]

* One of the reasons that the BadassBeard is so popular in HeavyMetal subculture. Particularly relevant to performers and fans of viking and folk metal, most famously Amon Amarth front man [[http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c53/Schatten000/Amon_Amarth___Wacken_2006_by_HellPi.jpg Johan Hegg]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mythology]]

* [[http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/images-3/thor.jpg Thor]]** Most of the Viking Pantheon, in fact-how wild is up to interpretation and research (see above example).

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]

* ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer}}'' takes this trope and makes sweet, sweet love to it. The length and fullness of your beard is a direct indicator of how badass you are. From the Norscans to the Dwarfs to the northerly Imperials, almost everyone whose badass has some manner of thick, unruly, seriously grizzly looking beard. ** Norscans and Nordlanders combine this with SeadogBeard to varying extents -- the Norscans due to being demon-possessed Vikings, and the Nordlanders due to being 16th century Sweden in a Fantasy setting.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* Chaos Marauders from ''VideoGame/WarhammerMarkOfChaos'' bear giant, sometimes forked, sometimes heavily braided beards into battle against the enemies of the Dark Gods and come from a culture of what could only be described as ''Satanist Vikings''. Helmetless Chaos Warriors on the other hand, disappointingly avert this trope. Despite embracing it in the official art for them from the tabletop game. * The Barbarian King from ''VideoGame/GodOfWar''.* The Barbarian from ''VideoGame/DiabloIII''. Note that The Barbarian of ''Diablo 2'' was bald and shaved.* The Dwarf Mountain King in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3'' has skulls (presumably) from his defeated enemies attached to his mustache.** In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', this trope is exemplified by the vrykul, whose men ''always'' have this kind of beard. Additionally, any male player-character Orc or Dwarf can have a beard with multiple braids and rings hanging from it.* Thok, Master of Dungeoneering from ''VideoGame/RuneScape''* Bearded Nords and Giants in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' would probably qualify.* Legate Lanius of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has one on his helmet. Beneath that, he simply has muttonchops and a goatee.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Stoick the Vast, and most of the other adult male Vikings, in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Aversion: UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat had his men shave regularly, so as to avoid giving the enemy an advantage (pull on your opponent's beard, his head's going to go where you want it to go).* Vikings -[[HollywoodHistory stereotypically.]] Actual Vikings tended to go for [[http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/hairstyl.shtml whatever type of beard was comfortable for them. So you could find as many Vikings averting this trope as you could playing it straight.]] This was both for the same practicality concerns UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat had and because the Norse people were very hygienic for the Middle Ages -- it was normal to wash and comb one's hair daily. Being beardless, however, was considered unmanly, and "thin-bearded" was a fighting word.* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chabal This guy]]. Suggested by @/{{Chabal2}}. Guess what he looks like...* '''Creator/{{BRIAN BLESSED}}''' often plays a character with one of these.* The buddhist monk Bodidharma is often shown in Chinese art with a thick bushy beard, as he was either Indian or Iranian, both peoples who can grow quite magnificent beards. And not being a native Chinese, he was considered a barbarian by default. He became the founder of Zen Buddhism and according to tradition also the man who introduced the Shaolin monks to kung fu.* The Latin word for beard ("barba") is related to the Latin word for barbarian ("barbarus"). One theory holds that the word barbarus comes from the fact that the Romans were clean shaven, while the barbarians were not.* While the beardedness of the Celts is debatable, they are confirmed to have some [[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3399/3557557985_ed748ebfa5_o.jpg pretty big mustaches.]]* When UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat decided to drag Russia kicking and screaming into conformity with Western European cultural mores, one of the things he did was make all of his nobles shave off their beards, sometimes he would do it personally.